Brothers
by Elenhin
Summary: The Johnson brothers as young, a slightly dysfunctional family but one where they still care for one another and do their best to take care of each others. Though perhaps Ty and Axl are still a little young to be cooking for their brother. One Shot


Author's Note:This is a one shot from the Almighty Johnsons. I just felt that a story where this was needed, where brothers show more brotherly love than skill. Made to bring forth a smile or two as well as a chuckle.

Warning: _The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen._

Disclaimer: I do not own the Almighty Johnsons, nor any other stray Norse Gods found in said show. Anders assures me that in spite of popular belief he is not a dwarf, though my three inch high Fili and Kili does not quite appear to agree with him. Anders is also under protection of Kili and no permanent harm will come to him in my fanfic stories.

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_**Brothers**_

Axl shrugged out of his jacket and threw it over a chair where he stood as Ty kicked off his shoes. They had played outside but quickly tired of it. Their mum wasn't home and neither was Mike and they were both hungry.

Normally Anders would take care of them, making sure they had breakfast but at the moment he was sick and Ty knew it meant they shouldn't bother him. Mike had told them as much and Anders just stayed in his bed in his room and hardly got up at all. That wasn't like it was supposed to be and Axl was always trying to slip away and go in to him. Ty had to try and stop him because their mum didn't want him to get sick too. The problem was that Axl tended to rely on Anders a great deal. He always climbed up to sit in his lap and Anders who could be a real jerk according to Ty tended to allow it. Now Axl was fussing and whining a lot more than he normally did because he wasn't allowed to go to Anders.

"I'm hungry," Axl had paused to pull of his shoe, but as he remembered he still hadn't had breakfast he got up and headed for Anders' room instead.

"You can't go there," Ty caught up to him and grabbed him.

"Why not?" Axl whined pitifully.

"Mum says you can't. Anders is sick and if you go in there you'll get sick too."

"But I'm hungry," he whined. "Anders gotta make food. I wanna eat."

"I guess we've got to wait until Mike gets home," Ty sighed. He was hungry too, but they had no cereals and he wasn't allowed to make real food. Anders was, which was why he always took care of it. Axl certainly wasn't and Mike wasn't home. He pouted, he was just as hungry as Axl was and didn't want to wait. There was no telling when Mike would get back. Their mum was usually gone most of the Saturday and he thought that maybe she had forgotten that Anders was sick and couldn't make them breakfast.

Axl made for the bedroom door again and Ty grabbed him, pulling him back. "Mum said no," he pointed out.

"But what if Anders is hungry too?" Axl pouted. "I'm hungry Ty, I wanna eat."

"I know," Ty sighed. "I'm hungry too."

"Make food," Axl demanded. "Please Ty."

"Fine, maybe we can find something," he decided.

"Make for Anders too," Axl urged as he followed him as quickly as his short legs allowed. "We make food."

"We can't make real food," Ty decided. "I can't use the stove, or the knives."

"Don't need," Axl beamed. "We make food, and we make Anders happy." He figured if they made him happy and made food for him he could have a hug. Maybe Anders would even read him a story.

"Oh, okay," Ty gave in. He had to admit that Anders too needed food, and he wondered if their mother had thought about that. When he was sick Anders had stayed home to take care of him, and he kept getting him really nice things to eat. He still thought Anders could be a jerk at times, but he did a lot of nice things too.

Axl was hardly more than a baby, but he was very enthusiastic and soon Ty found himself pulled along. He climbed up onto the counter and brought down a mug, a glass and a plate. Then he ran up water as hot as he could in the tap and filled the mug. Axl found the ground coffee beans and dumped a fistful into the mug. Ty figured that was how you made coffee, at least it was as far as he could tell. Mum and Mike didn't like it when Anders drank coffee, they said he was too little but he always did anyway so Ty figured it would make him glad.

They were out of juice but Axl dug out an orange and a couple of lemons. Not able to use the knives to slice them open they tore the peel off with their hands and squeezed the fruits as hard as they could into the glass. The result had a lot of slimy lumps of actual fruit in it but Ty smiled proudly as he put the glass beside the coffee mug.

He found some milk that he poured for himself and Axl, and he also found bread in the freezer. It was already sliced, but it was also frozen and hard. Taking a bite to try it he decided it was not very good, but it worked so he slathered a generous amount of jam on two slices for himself and Axl that they munched happily before continuing. There were no more jam and he bit his lip as he realized they had taken it all and left nothing for Anders.

Rummaging around in the fridge they found a bottle of ketchup and Axl happily struggled to get it open. He hadn't realized he held it upside down before the ketchup spilled out on the floor but the toddler quickly recovered his wits and used the bread to wipe it up before putting it on the plate.

"We need more," he decided. Coffee, juice and bread was not the perfect breakfast he wanted to make for his brother. "Ty, we need more."

"I'm thinking," he sighed. He didn't know what more they could do. There was bacon in the fridge, but since he couldn't use the stove he wasn't sure if it was any good. Then he remembered that Anders when he was cooking had sneaked a taste of the bacon raw, so maybe he liked it that way. Grinning he brought it out and dumped a couple of slices onto the plate. They were too long so he tore them apart.

Axl in the meantime had found the eggs, slapping one down on the counter so hard it cracked before Ty could stop him. Well, if Anders liked raw bacon he might like raw egg too so Ty allowed the egg to slide out of the shell next to the bacon. At least it looked pretty nice that way.

"Now we give it to him," Axl beamed cheerfully. He grabbed the plate in both hands and Ty took the glass and coffee mug. He worried his lip between his teeth, wondering if Anders would be as impressed as Axl was. Anders could be fussy with food, Mike always complained about that, and sometimes Anders didn't want to eat what they had. He hoped he'd like this or Axl would probably be crying.

Axl put the plate down on the floor as he opened the door to Anders' bedroom. It was a little dark in there and he blinked. The desk light was turned on so that there was light by the goldfish bowl though and he ran in to look at the fish before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Going back he fetched the plate and hurried back to the bed. Anders was just waking up, he'd been dozing with a book beside him on the cover.

During the night he'd been so miserable he couldn't really sleep, and now that he was finally sleeping Axl came barging in. He scowled at him, then coughed as Axl only slammed something down on the beside table and then climbed up on the bed.

"Missed you," he threw his arms around his older brother, one shoe clad foot finding purchase in a quite painful spot and Anders had to bite back a groan. That was Axl for you, his hugs could be a lethal danger. "We's hungry Anders," he went on. "Mike's not home and mum's not home and you never made us food."

"We know you're sick though," Ty put in. "But no one else is home."

"Oh shit," Anders groaned, rubbing his hand across his face. "I'll fix something, just give me a minute Ty." He felt awful, miserable, but if no one was home that meant no one had fed the kids and if he didn't feel so sick he'd want to punch Mike for leaving the kids alone. It was so unfair that he left them alone like that, he knew he was sick and couldn't take care of them like he normally did.

"We're out of cereals," Ty went on. "But we fixed it. We found bread."

"I thought we were out of bread," Anders croaked, his throat dry and sore.

"We found some in the freezer, it was a bit cold though," Ty blushed. "And we kinda took the last jam."

"That's okay," Anders assured him. He shuddered at the thought of eating frozen bread, but they both appeared quite happy.

"We made you food," Axl bounced on his bed, and on his arm, causing him to make a face.

"You made me food when I was sick," Ty bit his lip again. He was so shy and Anders forced himself to smile at him.

"We made you coffee too," Axl thrust the mug out towards him.

"Hey, you're not allowed to use the coffee maker," Anders objected. They could have scalded themselves and both mum and Mike would have blamed him.

"We didn't," Ty beamed. "We didn't use anything we can't. We didn't use the stove or the knives, we made it without it."

"Oh, okay," he blinked.

"We got juice, and we got coffee, and food," Ty beamed. Axl thrust out the plate towards him and Anders paled. Just the sight of it made his stomach churn and he had to fight the urge to throw up.

It wasn't enough that there was ketchup on the bread, and the way his stomach was that was nearly too much in itself. There was the raw egg in a mess of raw bacon. He had to swallow hard so that he wouldn't be sick.

Hoping to calm his stomach he accepted the glass of juice from Axl and nearly gagged as he took a sip. A thick slimy lump of something slid into his mouth. It had to be mostly lemon it was so sour and he started coughing.

"Anders?" Axl climbed up into his lap again and stuck his thumb in his mouth. Anders wrapped an arm around him while trying not to gag. He could see brown specks of something floating in the murky water in the coffee mug.

Ty and Axl were both looking at him expectantly and as disgusting as the stuff was he knew they had tried to be nice and he didn't have the heart to make them take it all way. He just didn't know how he was going to eat any of it without throwing up and actually broke out into a cold sweat from the effort. He did not even hear the front door open as he tried to brave another sip of the 'juice'.

Mike groaned as he entered the house, he could tell right away that their mum wasn't at home, and that the rest of his brothers were. Ty's shoes were thrown on the floor just inside the door, Axl's jacket lay over a chair. The two of them had obviously been outside and they never put their clothes away unless someone told them to. One of Axl's shoes stood further in the house which meant the other was somewhere else, or he still wore it.

Walking into the kitchen he sighed at the mess. There were orange and lemon peel all over the table. Well, since mum wasn't home he wasn't really surprised. It meant Ty and Axl had most likely been bored and started messing about with stuff they shouldn't.

He would have been mad at Anders for not cleaning it up but since he was sick he only sighed. Anders was always trying to get out of helping but right now he really was sick. There was no doubt about that. He had spent a couple of nights on the bathroom floor because he was throwing up and barely left his bed for anything.

Sighing he quickly cleared up the worst mess then went in search for Ty and Axl. They had to be bored by now and that meant they were likely up to something else.

He was surprised and a little annoyed to find Anders' bedroom door open. Their mum kept telling them not to go in there when Anders was sick because she didn't want them sick too. He didn't either, it was bad enough with Anders constantly whining and fussing. Pushing the door open he saw Anders jump at the unexpected sound, nearly dumping something on the floor.

"Mike!" Axl gave a loud shout, leaping down from the bed and running for his brother who scooped him up.

"You're not supposed to be in here," he scolded him. "Anders, why did you let them?"

"It's not my fault," he defended himself hoarsely. "I didn't have a choice Mike," he nodded to the plate that stood on the cover and Mike made a disgusted face.

"What is that?" he demanded.

"They made me breakfast," Anders winced. His throat was still sore and talking didn't help. "Axl and Ty did…" he finished.

"We were hungry," Axl tugged at his sleeve. "Anders didn't make us food, we were hungry Mike."

"There wasn't a lot though," Ty mumbled. "We don't have any cereals Mike. And mum isn't home. She didn't make Anders breakfast either."

"So we did," Axl beamed. "We were good."

"Very good," Mike ruffled his hair. "Come on now, let's find you two something to eat, and Anders can eat in peace. You really shouldn't be in here. You don't want to get sick, do you?"

"No," Axl shook his head.

"Come on Ty," Anders gave Mike a panicked look and he grinned. He'd be an idiot if he tried to eat the stuff, but if Mike got the two children out of the room it would be easier for him not to.

He put them in front of the television and promised them he'd get some more cereals, then he went back to Anders who had moved the plate to his desk.

"What is that?" Mike demanded with a disgusted look.

"I don't know," Anders shook his head. "The glass is orange and lemon, sort of, and they've just put ground coffee in water." He paused for a moment, thoughtfully. "Don't be mad at them Mike. They were trying to be nice."

"I'm not mad at them," he decided. "Guess I'm not mad at you either. You're sick, mum should've made them breakfast before she left."

"Yeah," Anders pulled the cover higher. "At least I'm not hungry anymore, but my throat hurts."

"Do you want me to get you some water?" Mike asked and he nodded with a small smile.

"Yeah, thanks," he decided. He was a little surprised by the offer but Mike only shrugged as he picked up the plate and the other stuff.

"Sorry I didn't make food for Axl and Ty," he apologized when Mike returned with the water. "I fell asleep."

"You're sick, mum should've done it," he shrugged. "I'm gonna make them something to eat now, then I have to go shopping."

"Okay," Anders nodded as he sipped the water. "Uh, thanks."

Mike waved it away, "you are sick," he repeated. "It's okay Anders. You wanna get some more sleep?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"I'll tell the kids not to bother you, and pick up some soup as well if you feel up to eating later," he shrugged as he left the room. It really wasn't Anders fault he was sick. And he admired him for trying to put on a brave face in regards to his breakfast. He wasn't sure if he could have done it. It had looked absolutely horrible. He'd have to talk to Ty about it later, but he didn't want his little brother to feel bad. It had been really nice of them to try. It was just a shame it hadn't worked.

He probably felt more sorry for Anders because of the food than for being sick though. Anders was growing to be a real jerk and Mike tried to keep away from the house as much as he could because it was such a mess. He hated having to go shopping all the time because their mum didn't do it. He hated having to take care of all three of his brothers, though he sure made Anders help with the youngest two.

He had to admit to himself that Anders was pretty good at looking after Ty and Axl. He couldn't help being sick and their mum should realize it meant she had to do the things Anders usually did. He did, he had taken Ty to school even though it was Anders' job really. He had made him lunch as well, and Ty had complained he didn't do it the same way Anders did it.

Who knew Anders could even be bothered to put a smiley face on the sandwich?

Hopefully Anders would be well again in a day or two and could do the stuff again so Mike could concentrate on his job. Also, then he could tease him about the 'breakfast'. It wouldn't be fair to do it now, but in a few days, and he would enjoy doing it to. He'd even tried to drink that awful mix of lemon and orange, and it made Mike smile.

**The End**

**_Please review, the Cricket is hungry…_**


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